The marketing mix – A recipe for business success

Running a business is like playing chess. 

You need a strategic vision: a plan that simplifies and clarifies the way forward, allowing you move forward confidently and decisively. 

That’s where what’s known as the marketing mix can help.

What is the marketing mix?

The marketing mix is an analytical tool used by marketers. It can be used to tell you about the resources you have at your disposal, and also about the market in which you operate.

Its ultimate aim is to ensure that the right products are sold: at the right price, in the right place and in the right way.

The Four Ps

In the 1960s, marketing professor E Jerome McCarthy proposed the revolutionary concept of The Four Ps. His model, a popular way of approaching the marketing mix, looks at:

Product - What product(s) and/or service(s) your business offers.

Price – How much you charge, and how much your suppliers charge you.

Promotion – How you let people know about what your business can do for them, which can range from having a website through to employing telesales staff.

Place – Where your product or service is delivered. If you are a tradesperson, this could be within a particular radius of your location. If you sell mail-order products on EBay, it could be anywhere in the country.

Using the Four Ps

The Four Ps raise questions which can help you to determine the best way forward for your business. To illustrate, let’s look at some of the questions that the four Ps raise:

Product –

Is there a high demand for your business’s products or services, relative to the level of competition? Is that demand likely to increase or decrease over time?

Could you use your business’s skills and resources to diversify?

Price -

Is your pricing competitive?

If you were to reduce or increase your prices, what would be the impact on profit?

Are you obtaining the best value for money from your suppliers?

Promotion -

Are you promoting your company as effectively (and as cost effectively) as you could?

Are you harnessing the full power of internet marketing?

Place –

Would it be worth expanding geographically?

Alternatively, might it make sense to focus more on a particular geographical area (if it reduces the time and cost of traveling, for example)?

Bringing it all together

The four Ps provide an excellent framework for making business decisions, highlighting threats and opportunities and helping you to make the right decisions for your business.

I hope you find this article useful, and I welcome your feedback.